Whiteley Reception

 Friday 15th November This week, we have been reading the book 'Wow! said the owl' by the author Tim Hopgood.  This is a story about a little owl who decides to stay awake all day instead of going to sleep at night like they are supposed to.  The little owl discovers a world bursting with colour.  We have talked about the front cover, the title and the author.  We have been joining in with the repeated text all together.  We have also discussed the meaning of some of the words to expand our vocabulary. Click here to listen to the story 'Wow! said the owl'. Phonics This week in phonics we have been learning the sounds of the letters ck, e, u, r.  We have read words containing these sounds and practiced making CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words on magnetic boards.  We have also learnt to form the letters using our school handwriting style. Phase 2 phonic actions and sounds Bug Club Please check your child's reading log to see which sounds we have learnt this week

Friday 8th November  This week, we have been learning about Bonfire night and why we celebrate it.  We have listened to the story of Guy Fawkes and learnt to mix our own paint colours to create firework pictures. Phonics This week we have introduced the letters g, o, c and k.  We have learnt the names of the letters, the sounds they make and the accompanying action. You may like to ask your child to show you these actions. We have identified words that contain these letters e.g. goat begins with 'g', pot has 'o' in the middle of the word. Bug Club Please check your child's reading log to see which sounds we have learnt this week and to see which book we have allocated. This week please encourage your child to read ' Did, Sid dig!' twice at home.  It is really important to read these books at home.  We notice such an improvement in the confidence and reading development of the children who are accessing Bug Club at home.  Thank you! Maths A key focus this wee

 Friday 25th October This week in school, we have been learning all about Autumn. We went for a walk in our woods and looked for signs of Autumn. We talked about the different colours of the leaves and what is happening to the trees. We listened carefully to the sounds around us as we watched the swaying of the trees. You may like to look for signs of Autumn on your walk to and from school. Phonics In phonics this week we have been learning the to sing our alphabet song and we have learnt the letter sounds i, n, m and d. We have practised writing these letters. You may like to try out some of the bug club phonics games linked to these sounds. We have allocated the book "Sid did it". Please can you read this book twice at home as part of our three read approach.  Maths This week we have been consolidating number to 5 and singing counting songs together. You may like to sing these together. Click below Counting Songs Communication and Language After the holiday we will be shari

 Friday 18th October This week, we have been learning the nursery rhyme 'Hickory, dickory dock'.  We have looked at a variety of clocks and noticed that all the numbers go in order.  We have also spent time talking about the timings of our school day e.g. we start our day at 9 o'clock, we eat lunch at 12 o'clock. Phonics This week we have begun Phase 2 and have introduced the letters s, a, t , p.  We have learnt the names of the letters, the sounds they make and the accompanying action. You may like to ask your child to show you these actions. We have identified words that contain these letters e.g. sun begins with 's', tip has 'p' at the end of the word. Bug Club Please check your child's reading log to see which sounds we have learnt this week. Maths This week in maths, we have been comparing quantities.  We have modelled the language 'more than' and 'fewer than' to describe how may objects are in a set. We have used a variety of ob

  Friday 11th October This week at school we have been learning the nursery rhyme "London Bridge is falling down".  We have discussed the history behind the rhyme and talked about why we have bridges and what they do.  The children have experimented with construction kits to build stable bridges and other structures.  We learnt how to cut masking tape safely with scissors and used it to join boxes together to make bridges. Phonics  In Phonics this week we have continued to play a variety of games.  These games have been played to help develop listening skills. For example: listening for words that begin with the same sound, listening for rhyming words in stories, identifying sounds and naming the odd sound out, and playing I-spy with nature sounds and with the names of their classmates e.g. I spy someone who's name begins with A? Please see your individual phonics booklet for lots of ideas of games to play at home. Bug club The school code to access Bug Club is  krm6 . Yo

                                   Grand Old Duke of York This week at school, we have been expanding our repertoire of nursery rhymes by learning and singing 'The Grand Old Duke of York'. We have spent time talking about our favorite books this week and sharing books with your children. We have introduced them to book language such as front cover, back cover, author, illustrator and blurb. It is really important to explore the whole book when sharing a book with your child. Phonics This week we have been looking at the book "The missing Button". We have been practicing saying in sentences what is happening in the pictures and making up our own story. Bug Club The school code to access Bug Club is krm6. Your child's log in details are in their reading logs and on the phase 1 phonics booklet. We have allocated all the lilac books for you to read and talk about together. Maths This week in Maths, we have been subitising small quantities and using their skills to ide

Friday 27th September This week we have been singing the nursery rhyme 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star'. We are encouraging the children to join in with actions. We have been working on the children's use of scissors.  Lots of children have found this very challenging.  Please see the correct way to hold scissors below. Right handed scissor hold Left handed scissor hold You might like to give your child opportunities to use scissors at home.  Perhaps they could help you by snipping the tops of green beans when you are cooking.  They could practise snipping the tops of paper tubes to make models. At school we use scissors like the ones below.  If you don't have any scissors please let us know. Click here to find a link to the scissors that we use at school. Maths In Maths this week the children have been encouraged to count a small amount of objects using one to one correspondence. The counting puppet helped us learn to count amounts accurately recognising that the last num

Friday 20th September  This week we have been singing the nursery rhyme 'Humpty Dumpty'. We are encouraging the children to join in with the words and actions. We have been practising building a stable wall for Humpty Dumpty to sit on. We talked about overlapping the bricks so the wall does not fall over. An Introduction to Phase 1 Phonics      At Whiteley Primary School in Phonics, we first focus on Phase One which is all about the children tuning into sounds  around them, listening and getting ready to develop oral blending and segmenting skills.   Phase One  concentrates on developing children's speaking and listening skills and lays the foundations for the phonic work which starts in Phase Two.    This week we have been concentrating on awareness of sounds that we can hear around us in the environment. We have also thought about the sounds we can hear in words eg, pot  p-o-t. Maths In maths this week the children have been encouraged to quantify sets of objects by subit

  An Introduction to Phase 1 Phonics      At Whiteley Primary School in Phonics, we first focus on Phase One which is all about the children tuning into sounds  around them, listening and getting ready to develop oral blending and segmenting skills.   Phase One  concentrates on developing children's speaking and listening skills and lays the foundations for the phonic work which starts in Phase Two.   There are activities and ideas for each aspect of Phase One in your child's Phase One phonics booklet that they will take home on Monday Below are some videos which cover  each aspect of Phase One. Please watch each video to find out how we teach each aspect. Aspect 1 The aim of this aspect is to raise children's awareness of the sounds around them and to develop their listening skills. Aspect 2 This aspect aims to develop children's awareness of sounds made by various instruments and noise makers. Aspect 3 The aim of this aspect is to develop children's awareness of s